Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Is it unprofessional to have a Facebook account for my business?

Generally, I advise companies to use social media tools in the same ways that the people you are trying to reach do. If your business wants to create a presence on Facebook, think about how your current and potential customers would use the site. Primarily, Facebook users are there to share content and information. They use Facebook as a way to communicate with each other. So you should use Facebook in the same way, and approach it as a communication tool.

But at the same time, you have to understand that Facebook’s core audience is college-age students. This demographic is VERY resistant to advertising, and very leery of being promoted to. So you’ll need to use Facebook as a way to provide value to its members. Maybe set up a sponsored page where you ask members to give you their suggestions, or where you provide customer service. If you use a Facebook page as a way to run an ‘electronic circular’ for your business, your efforts will probably hurt your business more than they help.

When your business is using social media in any form, be it blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, or even Twitter, always use the tools as your customers would. Your customers aren’t on Facebook because they want to give you a new way to advertise to them, so don’t do that. Seek to use the site as a way to communicate with your current and potential customers, providing them with valuable content and information instead.

           

Posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Boardroom, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.